A complete and updated commentary on the Code of Canon Law prepared by the leading canonists of North America and Europe. Contains the full, newly translated text of the Code itself as well as detailed commentaries by thirty-six scholars commissioned by the Canon Law Society of America.

The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1234 integrates the textual analysis necessary to understand the evolution and transmission of the legal tradition into the broader study of twelfth century ecclesiastical government and practice.

"Drawing upon new manuscript discoveries, the author shows how Burchard tried to create a new text that would address these problems. He carefully selected and compiled canons from earlier collections and then went on to tamper systematically with the texts he had chosen. By doing so, he created a book of church law that appeared to be based on indisputable authority, that was internally consistent and that was easy to apply through logical extrapolation to new cases. The present study thus provides a window into the development of legal and theological reasoning in the medieval West, and suggests that, thanks to the work of ambitious bishops, the flowering of law and theology began far earlier, and for different reasons, than scholars have heretofore supposed."--BOOK JACKET.